Hydro allows private systems to interface with a public blockchain. We propose a new hybrid private-public model that enables financial services platforms to leverage the dynamics of a distributed, transparent, and immutable public ledger. The project focuses on particular areas where this can add value, such as authentication, identity management, document security, transactions, and artificial intelligence.

Background

Hydro is part of the parent company Hydrogen. Hydrogen is a tech platform for developers and enterprises in the financial services space. Its modular set of APIs offers digital infrastructure and capabilities to quickly prototype, build, test, and deploy sophisticated financial technology platforms and products globally.

We began an integration of blockchain tech as part of the Hydrogen platform during the summer of 2017. Our main consideration was how the Hydrogen API ecosystem, being fundamentally private, can be enhanced by a public blockchain layer. As we laid out our plans to accomplish that, we also realized that our proposed private-public hybrid model can and should be used to enhance systems of all kinds. We are excited to announce Hydro as an open technology suite, with its ongoing implementation in Hydrogen serving as a point of immediate adoption.

Design Principles

We are building Hydro on the Ethereum infrastructure, although we remain platform agnostic. We intend to leverage the thousands of developers globally that are working to make underlying blockchain technology faster, stronger, and more efficient. Hydro focuses on developing product-oriented capabilities, largely centered around smart contract functionality.

Our main design philosophy is that of augmenting off-chain systems rather than outright replacing them. We do not believe that all economic activity will or should move on-chain. Rather, distributed ledger technology can serve to enhance those underlying, fundamentally private systems in specific ways. Hydro is laser-focused on making that a reality and synergizing with the current environment, in order to facilitate real-world adoption of blockchain tech in a meaningful way and introduce the benefits of decentralization, immutability, and transparency.

What Sets Hydro Apart?

Hydro is architected as an independent parallel layer, and its value comes from various interactions between the private and public layers. This means an underlying private system does not need to change in any fundamental way or create any costly new architecture - allowing even large institutions to rapidly adopt blockchain technology beyond the proof-of-concept phase.

Additionally, Hydro is implemented natively into the Hydrogen API ecosystem, offering immediate and direct access to Hydro capabilities. Hydrogen can power many kinds of platforms and applications across the financial services sphere (investing, savings, insurance, financial wellness, etc.) and the company works with a range of clients, from individual developers up to large financial enterprises.

The Hydro Ecosystem

The goal of the project is to create an ecosystem of power-ups that platforms can leverage, in order to easily integrate blockchain technology in ways that add value. The graphic below sets out our vision for Hydro:

Raindrop

The first Hydro release deals with something that is core to all systems - authentication and security. It was conceived to provide additional protection for sensitive data that is increasingly at risk of breach. In the proposed framework, dubbed "Raindrop", on-chain operations performed via smart contract can validate access to private, off-chain systems. This validation layer complements standard private authentication and authorization protocols, such as Google Authenticator and OAuth 2.0, by acting as an additional public factor that must be satisfied before system access is granted. The worldwide developer community, through the decentralized and transparent consensus mechanisms of the blockchain, can now offer greater protection to billions of pieces of sensitive data from bad actors.

The Raindrop authentication process involves 4 entities: an Accessor trying to gain access, a System that denies or grants access, the Hydro module (off-chain), and a Hydro smart contract (on-chain). An example of a System is a REST API, while an example of an Accessor is an API developer. The diagram below depicts how these entities interact during part of the process.

Please see the white paper and website for more detailed information about how Raindrop works.

Client Raindrop

Unlike enterprises with large systems and APIs, many user-facing clients do not require every access attempt to be logged on-chain. Accordingly, we have integrated a Client functionality into our Raindrop API. This functionality creates a scalable, blockchain-based two-factor authentication for any application’s login portal. To augment this offering, we are developing a mobile app to enable users to confirm login attempts in a simple, user-friendly process. This enables a day-to-day integration of blockchain security to any client application. In congruence with our design philosophy, this process does not require more than a few simple API calls for clients.

Token Distribution for Developers

We concluded our air drop distribution to developers on 2/16, distributing 2,556,219,666 tokens to 11,208 developers. A minimum of 222,222 tokens were distributed to each developer for use in integrating Raindrop authentication and further developing with Hydro and Hydrogen. Developers can use their tokens to build blockchain-enabled applications. We encourage people to make world-changing applications using Hydro from day one!

Token Dynamics

Hydro utilizes an ERC-20 standard token. The total token supply is 11,111,111,111. Of those tokens, approximately 24% were distributed to the developers who successfully signed up during the rollout period described above. The token allocation breakdown is show below.

We are very excited to launch Hydro and see the amazing ways in which it is used by developers of all kinds! Feel free to comment and ask any questions below - we look forward to engaging with the community!

This is not an "ICO", it is a token distribution for devs. The developer sign up runs through 2/16, and then the tokens will be distributed. For more details about the project, including a white paper, videos, and other info, please visit the Hydro website.

Really interesting project but what will give the Hydro token value to the general public and how will they obtain them if all the tokens are being split between developers, the treasury and the team?

Thanks for the kind words!

We have no comment on the "value" of the Hydro tokens. Our distribution considers developers of all kinds who sign up to use Hydro. This is not limited to just enterprise devs or those who code professionally. Rather, it includes all who wish to build on top of Hydro, as those individuals will need Hydro tokens to do so. In that regard, there may be some overlap between "developers" and what you refer to as the "public."

I see this project very promising. I will try to participate in the airdrop of this project. But when will the roadmap and whitepaper be published? Hopefully this project goes smoothly and good luck for HYDRO